Tee of hieam beedan



BE'RDAN.

Cartridge.

No. 46,292. V Patented Feb. 7, 186-5.

N. PETERS. PHOTO-UTHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. 0 O.

UNITED STATES HIRAM BERDAN, on new YORK, n. Y.

on THE SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARTRIDGES PATENT GrFIcn.

, ASSIGNOB T0 LEVI P. MORTON, TRUS- TEE OF HIRAM BERDAN, ABIA A. SELOVER, AND WILLIAM B. BENSON,

FOR BREEQH-LOADING RIFLED FIRE- ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 46,292, dated February 7 1865.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HIRAM BERDAN, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cartridges; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figures 1 and 2 are side elevations, in part Similar letters of reference indicate corre-i spending parts.

My improved cartridge has a case of sufficiently rigid and impervious material to, resist the action, of the gases in firing, and constitute anefficient guide to the balls. The ex terior of the said case is of irregular form to fit within a counter-bore of corresponding:

shape, and its interior is rifled to correspond in shape as well as in size with the bore proper,-whieh the balls themselves are previously prepared to fit.

My improved cartridges may have their cases A made either wholly of paper or of some textile fabric or pliable material or the said cases may be composed partly of paper and partly of some textile fabric or pliable material, or they may be made wholly or in part of metal. Iprefer to make them of paper, in the manner which I will now proceed fully to describe.

I first cover the paper of which the body of the case or shell is made with paste or other suitable adhesive material, in order to cause the folds of paper to adhere together. I then (see Fig.5) roll the pasted paper A upon a.

vport, d, as shown.

round mandrel, B, of about the intended size of the bore of the fire-arm in which the cartridge is to be used. I then divide the cylinder of paper thus made into suitable sections At the upper end of the plunger 0, I insert a mandrel, D, which exactly corresponds in form to the shape of the bore of the fire-arm. In the illustration here presented the exterior of the mandrel is provided with rifled feathers, to correspond with the rifled bore of an ordinary rifled gun.

Supported in a suitable eye or holder, 6, attached to the upper part of the support d, I secure a nut or die, E, which is of the exact form and size of the interior of the counterbore or cartridge-chamber of the gun in which the cartridge is to be used.

Having placed the paper cylinder A" upon the mandrel D, I cause the latter to rise by means of the rack and pinion, and I thus, with immense force, compress the paper section between the mandrel l) and the-nut or die E, so that when the paper section has passed entirely through the die E it will have assumed the exact form of the counter-bore of the gun. The enormous pressure thus given to the paper condenses and solidifies its substance, and causes it to become very hard and rigid, while it insures accuracy of fit in the counter-bore or cartridgechamber of the gun.

The next operation is to attach the metallic head or cap F, which is to close one end of the, paper section or cylinder. This head or cap may be made much in the same manner as the ordinary metallic cartridges or caps are out of its cylindrical shape.

The cap F, thus prepared, is now placed upon the upper end of the paper case or section A, while it still remains upon the mandrel D, (see Fig. 7,) and a follower, G, is then made to descend and drive downward the mandrel, cap, and paper section toward the die E.

It will be observed that the upper end of the die is furnished with a recess,-g, of suffi-' cient size to admit the cap F. The bottom of this recess, it will also be observed, is made to incline inward toward the mandrel D. The depth of therecess is purposely made less than the length of the cap F. When, therefore, the cap and paper section are pressed down by the follower G, the cap will enter the recess, and its thin edge f will strike against the inclined bottom of the recess, and will be deflected inward toward the paper into which it will enter, as shown in the enlarged Figs. 3 and 9. The firmness with which the cap and v the paper section will be combined will depend upon the pressure applied to the follower G, which may be regulated at pleasure.

The shell thus made I now saturate with hot tallow, which not only lubricates the shell, but renders the cartridge weather-proof, and prevents the gases arising from the powder from entering the pores of the shell and thus destroying it. The paper caseAis then charged with fulminate powder and ball in anyconvenient manner. A single ball, as in Fig.2, or more than one ball may be employed, as in Both the exterior andthe interior of the cartridge-case made as described may have the samerifled twist, or the form of the interior and exterior vary, the latter being of any irregular shape, but the exterior must be of the same form as the counter-bore or cartridgechamber of the gun in which the cartridge is to be employed, and so arranged as to guide the cartridge into proper position, so that when interior rifling is used, it will correspond in position, as well as in form, with the riding of the bore proper.

The balls used in such cartridges are to be previously rifled or prepared upon their exterior surfaces tofit the bore of the gun, and also to fit the interior of the cartridge-case, which is intended to be exactly similar in form and size to the interior of the bore of the gun. I prepare the balls for these cartridges by forcing them with a suitable punch through a die or nut which exactly corresponds to the ]shape and size of the bore of the gun, or neary so.

My invention thus enables me to use projectiles of sufficient ly hard material to adapt them to keep their proper form in firing instead of being upset or pressed out of shape, as is the case with projectiles which are sufficient-l y soft to be pressed or expanded into the grooves by the action of the gas.

The hardness of the metal is important where twoor more balls are used, in order to prevent upsetting or flattening by inertia and by the pressure of gas in firing; and they must be rifled or prepared to fit the bore, in order to prevent their being pressed out of shape by the force of the gas against the rear one when the front one takes the grooves. Three balls applied one before the other, in the manner above described, are found in practice to spread about five feet in two hundred yards. I

A long ball is valuable for long range, by reason of its smaller area of resistance in proportion to its weight, and the hardness of the metal is important in such a projectile to prevent its upsetting at the base by the action of the gas, and in order, also, that it may have strength to prevent the stripping of the lands of the ball with the rapid twist which is necessary to impart to a long projectile sufficient rotation to maintain its proper position during its flight;

The hardness and previous formation of the long ball are also important, to admit of effective patching, and to prevent the destruction of the patch and consequent leading of the gun, which invariably take place with projectiles of sufliciently soft metal to be pressed into the grooves by the gases.

Prepared projectiles, to be loaded from the muzzle, must be made smaller than the bore, to admit of their being forced down with a ramrod, and must therefore be made sufficiently soft to be upset by the action of the gases, to close the windage and form a guiding surface. By this means the guiding surface is confined to the rear part of the projectile.

My projectiles are specially valuable with breech-loading rifles, because I am enabled to make them of such size and shape that they will accurately fit the bore, and of such hardness that they will not be upset or compressed in firing.

I am aware that prepared hexagonal balls have before been used in cartridges in breechloading guns; but I do not know of any instance of previously-prepared projectiles having been used in an indestructible cartridgecase which by fitting an irregular .counterbore would locate the projectiles in position to coincide with the bore proper, without their entering the same in the act of loading. Heretofore all cartridge-cases with balls prepared to fit the rifling have been used in the bore proper, and hence required to be thin and combustible, which allowed the charge-chamber to become foul after a few rounds, so as to make it difficult to enter a cartridge, especially at the breech, where aramrod could not be used, and in no case could a plurality of balls be used in so delicate a cartridge, as the a rifled interior to correspond in size and form with the bore proper, in combination with one or more projectiles previously prepared to fit the rifling of thebore, the whole constructed and arranged substantially as herein described, so that the chamber will be protected from fouling, and the balls properly located in respect to the rifling of the bore without the necessity of their entering the latter in the act of loading.

HIRAM BERDAN.

Witnesses:

M. M. LIVINGSTON, WM. F. MGNAMARA. 

